be supplemented by a practical
building up and the development of the better instincts of the man,
which cannot be done under our present system. The surroundings are
against it. We are constantly developing and stimulating the very
worst instincts. I believe it practicable to institute methods for this
reform, at once creditable to the State." Who can doubt our statements
on this subject when we quote such high authority as the above. The last
warden of this great institution comes out and officially announces that
awful fact that our present system of prison treatment is constantly
developing and stimulating the very worst instincts. Constantly making
men worse, and when a young man enters the prison he is morally tainted,
when he goes out he is completely saturated, with moral pollution.
After such statements from so high an authority will the great State
of Missouri, so well-known the world over for her numerous acts of
benevolence, continue to have an institution within her borders for the
complete demoralization and ruin of multitudes of her young men. Should
a youth of Missouri, surrounded by influences and temptations which
he could not resist, once fall from a position of honor and integrity,
although it is his first violation of the law, he will be taken into
custody of the State, hurled into a pit, where for a time he will inhale
the fetid breath of wickedness, then, later on, to be released and sent
out into the free world a moral leper.

The State should not provide this machine for the moral destruction
of her unfortunate youth. If this be the real and true condition of
affairs, what can be done to change them? I would suggest the erection,
at once, of a reformatory. Classify the prisoners. Let those who are in
for the first offense be separated from those who are professional and
debased criminals. Give these youthful offenders the benefit of schools,
connected with the reformatory. Let them have moral instruction, and
many of these young men will be reclaimed, However well a criminal is
treated, when behind prison walls, however good the advantages granted
him, all this will avail but little, if some provision is not made to
aid him when he leaves the prison. Many prisoners, at the time of their
discharge, may be, in heart, as pure as angels, and resolve to lead
good lives, yet they are convicts, and carry out with them the shame and
disgrace of such a life. They must live even if they are disgraced. They